Meeting "Him"

Wow, 3 in the same month! I'm impressed with myself!!

This post is the opposite of the last two. No pissy, yet funny story about Brooks narrating boxes of crap to me, or telling y'all about how moving makes me crazy, or anything about today's fiasco of how "downsizing" Brooks crap has SO not gone well and i am less than amused. BUT this is a good story and in re-reading it, it always makes me smile and remember those early days of our union and how awesome it feels to be so in love with such a wonderful man!!  Crap...Here he comes with yet another shirt that there is some story to tell about...GET TO WORK!! Ain't nobody got time fo dat!! Ok...so anyway...here is a good story! Enjoy!

* * *

I really wanted to post this on our one year anniversary last month buuuut...that didn't happen. By June 25th, i had kinda forgotten i even had a blog. Seems that happens with me. This is the 3rd...no, 4th, no...hmm...4th!! 4th blog I've had and the others i can't even find the bookmark on my computer, let alone remember the damn password. But i digress...

Many people have asked how Brooks and i met. And it's a good, albeit, somewhat embarrassing story, but a good story nonetheless. And what's a little embarrassment among...well, strangers? Ok, so i know a few of my friends actually read this, but i was looking at my audience the other day...i don't know anybody who lives in Canada, Switzerland or Peru, but that's where some of my audience is. And thanks for reading btw!! I love that someone out there actually reads this stuff!! It'd be great if i could become one of those bloggers who actually makes money with their tirades and rants about random and useless information!! Seriously! What a fun job!! 

AnyWAY...geez...lets focus Jules!! Sheesh! I think I've had too much sugar today.

Ok, so here it is...meeting "him".

So as I've said, i met the love of my life a little over a year ago at the end of May. I know it sounds like I've lost my damn mind when after just a few short months i spoke of him in this respect, but you just don't get it. Nor do i really care that anyone really "gets" it. It just is!

I had been asked to attend a big camping trip with a bunch of my closest friends. They do it every year. A way to just get out of the city and reconnect and have a blast doing it. It's a long trip though. About 10 days in the middle of nowhere. I was in! I needed a break from the crap in the city and what better way than to spend it with my awesome peeps that i already knew, and meet new friends too!

I was introduced to Brooks the day i arrived. Him and his dad were already set up when my friends Paul and Jody and I arrived. A rain storm hit soon after we got there, which i was caught in while getting beer for everyone. It's just tradition when we camp. Get there and crack open a beer. Screw setting up...just drink to you and everyone else!!

Brooks and his dad (Brooks Sr, or really Jr. My Brooks is the third, but they call him Jr, Jr. Don't get me started on all the nick-names he has!) had joined us all in Paul's mamma-jamma tent we like to call the 'condo'. It's huge!! Plenty of space for all of us sitting in camp chairs, a table and two beds! Plus extra space!! So there we all were. The 5 of us waiting on the rest of our 'tribe' to arrive, drinking beer and waiting out the storm. We all sat around the table talking and having a great time.

Over the course of the next week, Brooks and i didn't really spend a lot of time talking amongst ourselves. We had so many people that we camped with that it was hard to get a moments peace, let alone start something with someone. Or see if there was anything to start.

After we all came home from the trip, i was invited by my friend Paul to attend Brooks' birthday party. I accepted and brought my BBQ baked beans to the party. There were a ton of people there, and a bunch of the campers from the trip, so i knew a lot of people.

As birthday parties go, this was one hell of a party!! I definitely drank my fill! At one point i walked into the house to use the bathroom and there was Brooks with two different whiskey's and a rum. He says "JUUUUULLLLEEEESSSSS!!!!!! YOU need a SHOT!!!" Who was I to deny a request of the birthday boy? I accepted the bottle of cinnamon whiskey, and the honey whiskey to chase it. Another 4 rounds of both and i was goooood!! I returned back outside with our friends.

A while later i came back inside, again to use the bathroom, and ran into his dad. He says to me, "Hey suga!! How you doin? Are you havin fun?" I replied..."Oh yes!!!" Then i started giggling. I said "I have something i should probably tell you...." He asked "What's that suga?" To which i drunkingly replied..."I have a bit of a crush on your son". It was true. I hadn't stopped thinking about him since we left camp two weeks before. To my delight he was more than happy! He said "REALLY?! Ohhh!!!! You should tell him!! Oh wait! You should tell Sherrie!! (Brooks' mom!)" I kinda freaked out and said "NOOO!!!! I don't wanna tell mom!! Shhhh!!!!" He called her over to our side of the counter. She says to me "How you doin sweetie? You havin fun?" I told her i was. Then Brooks Sr says "Sherrie...she has something she needs to tell you". "Oh, what's that?" *sigh* to which i replied..."I have a bit of a crush on your son". To my relief she was ok with that knowledge!! She said "YOU DO?!!!! OH MY GOSH!!! He's single you know? Oh!! You have to tell him!! He's downstairs! Go!! GO tell him!!" So off i drunkingly went...to tell my crush how i felt.

In my defense, he nor i remembered the conversation until several weeks later. And truth be told that we finally remembered how i wound up becoming a pile of rocks in the driveway about a month later. I had gone downstairs to tell him how i felt. He told me he felt the same and we were kissing. Our friend Ginny had come in to use the bathroom and we went outside, we think to go back up to the party in the front yard. He went to his truck and i went up the driveway to join our friends. I never made it. I decided to lay in the road instead. Ginny and Paul found me later and with Lou-Ann's help got me sitting upright again. Brooks went inside and fell asleep face-down in a chair. Lou-Ann and Paul got me to my tent and a few moments later i got back up to use the bathroom inside. I saw Brooks and covered him up with my sleeping bag that i had wrapped around me. When i came out a few moments later i sat next to him and took off his flip flops that he was still wearing. I remember thinking how mean it was to uncover him, so i sat there for a moment thinking, and trying to figure out if i had a sweatshirt or something else i could use in loo of my sleeping bag. The next thing we both knew it was morning. I had slept on the chair with him (it's a big chair). We had no recollection of all of the things that went on until weeks later. Now we laugh about it. There was a good deal of "talk" amongst our friends about what really happened! Much to their disappointment I'm sure, since neither of us are like that.

After the party and after I went home it took me a few days to friend request him on Facebook. After i sat with our friend Derrick and talked to him for a bit about it. I liked him. I was interested in finding out more about him and seeing if we had enough in common to pursue a possible relationship and I wanted to see if he wasn't just another guy out there who wanted a notch on his belt. Derrick encouraged it. He told me to ask him for his number. Tell him how i felt. He didn't think that Brooks would do it himself. So i went home. And i messaged him.

The message hit his phone while he was at a Government Mule concert for his birthday. In my message i was quick to the point. Though my nerves definitely had gotten to me...which i did state in the message. I told him that i liked him, but if he felt i wasn't his cup of tea no hard feelings and I'm sure I'd see him again at some point, where we could both laugh about it. His reply came the next day. He gave me his number, said he thought i was a lot of fun to hang out with and that I'd been on his mind since his birthday party.

Well that was that! I called him that night and we talked for almost 2 hours. We never ran out of things to talk about. There was never an awkward silence.

When i got off the phone with him, I texted my best friend and said i was sorry i was just now getting back to her but i had been on the phone for the last 2 hours. She asked who i was talking to. My reply, "My future husband". :)

And a little over a year later, here we are. It's been quite a year! As you can tell from some of my posts. But it's been awesome and we are both so happy and so in love! Some days i literally pinch myself! Like really.  I often wonder where in the world he came from and how i got so lucky to find him!! And he'll bring that up too. He'll talk about how me being from Oregon and he's from NC and how we met via our best friends, and what a small world it really is. He thinks I'm the cat's meow. But for me...well...he hung the moon!